hive swarmed 5/30/08

[Wile E.]

Got home last night and went out with the dog. Immediatly knew something was wrong as heard a dull roar of bees. Looked up above hive, and there they were (about 60/70ft up in tree). Too high to scoop up safetly, so I put a nuc box w/ frames and a hive box w/ frames out in two separate locations on lawn. Smeared honey B health on entrance. Any other suggestions to try and entice the girls down from the high perch?
Anything special I should do with the hive they came from (entrance reducer?... etc)?

Still there this am. How long do they sit there until they take off?
thank you for any advice in advance.
Jon

[riverrat]

They will be there has long as it takes to find a suitable new home. It could be a few hours or a few days. If they cant find a suitable home they will start building comb where they are. If you have some drawn comb with honey. I would put it in the nuc box. If possible I would get them up off the ground. Most swarm traps are hung in trees. Other than that I would say it is a waiting game to see If they want to move into your nuc.

[Wile E.]

Thank you for the suggestions Riverrat.
They are up off the ground. The hive box is about 3ft off ground and the nuc is 2ft or so.
I will try and take a frame of honey from old hive and put in box. I do have a feeder in hive box now also.

[Fred Bee]

Hey Wile E.,
Good luck...we had a swarm a while back...like yours they were high up...way to high to get. They stayed there about 4 days before they finally flew away. As sad as we were to loose this swarm, my wife said to look at the bright side...we made a contribution to "Mother Nature." Hopefully, the bees found a good home elsewhere.

[Wile E.]

Well, within a 10 minute window they picked up and moved. Missed the event, so don't even know what direction they went in.
Oh well.... guess this is one aspect of beekeeping I had to experience at least once. This iwas the established hive I was expecting to get honey from this year. Quess I missed the overcrowding signs. I was in a week ago and never saw any queen cells. I took a frame of brood out for my brother in-laws hive that was queenless. I am assuming they were already "programed" to swarm then. Is it possible the new queen was out then?
Thanks again for all the helpful suggestions.

Is there anything special I should do with the hive that was left behind? How much of the hive to they generally leave behind with new queen?
Jon